This invention relates generally to cell cultivation and, more particularly, to the use of special fatty acid lower alkyl esters as nutrient media for cell cultures and, more particularly, as a substitute for foetal bovine serum (FBS).
By virtue of its broad scope of application, foetal bovine serum is the serum most widely used for the in vitro cultivation of cells, tissues and organs both in industry and in medicine and science. Worldwide demand—which is covered almost exclusively by foetal calf serum—amounts to around 500,000 liters per year.
The blood from the animal foetuses used for FBS production is normally obtained by drilling through the umbilical cord or the jugular vein, although for septic reasons the heart is preferably punctured. Although the view widely held among experts is that the foetus dies at about the same time as the mother animal, it cannot be ruled out that the foetus may survive for some time after the time the heart of the mother animal has stopped beating because scientific studies have shown that foetuses and newborns are capable of managing lack of oxygen comparatively well. Nor can it be ruled out that the foetus feels pain which makes the process of obtaining FBS an ethically questionable practice.
Accordingly, the problem addressed by the present invention—in the context of sustainability and animal welfare—was to provide a nutrient medium for a large number of very different cell lines with sufficient solubility in the cultures which would be comparable in its properties with serum of animal origin, but which could be obtained synthetically, preferably using vegetable or marine starting materials, and which would therefore render the production of FBS superfluous in the medium term.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,792 discloses a water-based, animal lipoprotein concentrate.